THREE FIRE ENGINES CALLED TO REMOVE SANTA HAT
When a Santa hat was placed on a spire at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, the joke was lost on authorities who had it removed because it was a risk to health and safety.
A team of 10 firefighters using two fire engines and a support vehicle with a hydraulic platform spent an hour lowering the seasonal headgear, which had been fastened to a 60ft spire about the college entrance known for centuries as the Gate of Humility.
The culprit remains a mystery, but it is thought to be a student playing a practical joke following an end-of-term night out.
The college response was in stark contrast to a previous prank hailed as one of the greatest of all time. In 1958, students at Gonville and Caius winched an Austin Seven onto the roof of the nearby Senate House and residents of Cambridge awoke to see it perched at the apex of an inaccessible rooftop, looking as if it were driving across the skyline.
The then Dean of Caius, the late Rev Hugh Montefiore, guessed who was responsible and sent them a congratulatory case of champagne despite publicly maintaining that he knew nothing of the culprits.
It is not known how anyone managed to scale the spire in the latest incident, which is thought to be impossible to climb, to attach the hat. An identical hat was found stuck to the cupola roof of nearby Clare College.
Witnesses said the operation to remove the hat involved closing part of the nearby road, leading to traffic tailbacks.
A spokeswoman for Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue said the firefighters were paying a routine familiarisation visit to the college when they were asked to remove the hat and that the episode had provided a useful training exercise.
(Telegraph/Mail)
jollyweez
I like Santa's cap on top of the spire. It would not have caused harm to have left it there until Christmas was over. It is a jolly thing to see and we are supposed to be jolly at Christmas!